Classy Talk.

I was thinking today about the fact that I still retain some of the colloquial modes of speech which I grew up with in a northern industrial town. Top of the list was ‘have you got..?’ Speakers of more eloquent English don’t use that form. The Lady B’s dear mama (who is the most eloquent speaker I know personally), for example, would never ask ‘Have you got an hour or so to spare to take tea with me?

(I do realise at this juncture that the Lady B’s mother would never ask that question because I’m not the sort of person to whom she would ever proffer such an invitation, but that isn’t the point.)

The point is that she would use a different form of the interrogative. She would ask ‘do you have an hour or so to spare…’ It’s what separates the classy people like her from the denizens of society’s dark underbelly like me. Mel came up with another one. She works in a coffee shop and admits to asking ‘do you want cream with your coffee?’ when a more refined version would be ‘would you like…’

I expect it’s a Normans and Saxons thing. When the Normans took over the role of Most Important People in 1066 they came bearing a version of French, and French is a Romance language largely derived from Latin. I think the notion already held sway that anything which could claim its origin in the late-lamented Roman Empire was inherently more refined and sophisticated than anything the backward and bestial Germanic peoples (of which the English are an example) could offer. It’s all poppycock, of course, and largely based on Roman propaganda, but we English still tend to grudgingly acknowledge that there is a difference between the posh folks and the rest. And it shows in the way we speak.